The man Dallas Stars’ fans once reviled is now their hero as they force Game 6
The reason why the Stanley Cup Final is not over is because of two old men, one of whom was most unwelcome when he came to the Dallas Stars.
Veteran Corey Perry uglied in a goal for the Dallas Stars to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in double overtime of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night in Edmonton.
The Stars trail the series 3-2, and will play Game 6 on Monday night.
Perry scored the game’s first, and last, goal; teammate Joe Pavelski added the tying goal with less than eight minutes remaining in the game.
This duo, who signed as free agents with the Stars in the offseason, are not the team’s most talented players. They are, however, the most experienced players who are playing with the energy of a couple of kids.
“I don’t know if you can call them old,” Stars center Tyler Seguin said after the game via Zoom. “They have the best endurance of all of us.”
Perry, who for years irritated the Dallas Stars when he played with the Anaheim Ducks, signed with the Stars in the offseason to score the types of goals he did on Saturday night; ugly, nasty, grating.
“He knows how to win,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said.
Now, Perry is one of those players you deem dirty, if he’s not on your team.
That does not make him Claude Lemiuex, but Perry is not going to win the Lady Byng any time soon.
After a bad first overtime where the Stars registered only two shots on goal, they came out in the second visibly better.
“We were playing not to lose,” Bowness said.
Near the midway point of the second OT, Stars defenseman John Klingberg was able to generate a chance and Perry was there for the rebound to shoot it past Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The goal was reviewed to determine if Perry was onside, which he was.
Good goal.
On to Game 6.
“I scored the winner, but it could have been anybody,” Perry said.
The stats, on Saturday night, say otherwise.
There is a Game 6 also due in large part to Stars goalie Anton Khudobin.
After struggling badly in Games 3 and 4, the charming backup turned No. 1 played like the goalie who carried the Stars past Vegas in the Western Conference Final.
Khudobin stopped 39 of 41 shots, and made at least five saves that saved the game.
He now has 717 saves during this postseason. The previous team record was 606, set by Ed Belfour in 2000.
The Stars simply are not generating nearly as much offense as Tampa, and their best chance remains to keep this as a 5-on-5 game.
The Lightning special teams, which has dominated this series, was handed only one power play on Saturday night. It didn’t score.
The officiating, which was deservedly criticized after Game 4, stayed out of the way in Game 5. Only three penalties were called.
If Game 6 is called the same as Game 5, the Stars have a chance.
The Stars took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a Perry goal. The Lightning tied it in the second, and took the lead in the third period.
At that point, 2-1 felt good enough to win.
With less than 10 minutes remaining in the third, the Stars were put on the power play and generated nothing.
Shortly after the power play ended, Pavelski tied the game with a less than eight minutes remaining.
With that goal, Pavelski is now the all-time leader in goals scored by an American born played in Stanley Cup history. He has moved past Joe Mullen, and former Dallas Star Mike Modano.
Pavelski scored 14 goals in his first regular season with the Stars. He has 13 goals in this postseason.
Perry has three goals in the last two games.
The old men are the reason why the Dallas Stars are going to Game 6.
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 11:40 PM.
